Buttrey Big Fresh

Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

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pseudo3d
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Buttrey Big Fresh

Post by pseudo3d »

In the 1990s, basically from 1995 to 1998, Buttrey Big Fresh stores included a "Buttrey Food Court" that had a coffee bar, cinnamon rolls, fried chicken, pizza, etc. All of these were from local brands or otherwise things you've never heard of (Cluck's, Moose Bros., Cinnamon Street), but they were available. What happened to these when Albertsons bought them out? I mean, I know that Albertsons was known for running somewhat homogenized stores (evident when they bought American Stores), but did all this just...go away?
bm10k
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Re: Buttrey Big Fresh

Post by bm10k »

The Only One That I Know of Was In Great Falls And That Location Was one of the Diversified Stores sold to Smith's
which is still to this day
dcpeachy
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Re: Buttrey Big Fresh

Post by dcpeachy »

Great Falls at one point had three Big Fresh stores, two of which were built as Buttrey-Osco stores when they were being made to look exactly like Jewel-Osco. The one that became Smith's was built later to replace two other nearby Buttrey stores (one at Holiday Village Mall that had an attached Osco, but functioned as individual stores, and a Buttrey SuperStore down the road).

The Big Fresh makeover for the stores really was a way to use up the space that the stores had from being Buttrey-Osco combo stores once the Osco part was no longer supplied at the level of a full line Osco. In smaller towns, the stores simply adjusted merchandising so that food covered more of the floor. Many of the stores changed their name from Buttrey Food and Drug to Buttrey Fresh Foods and used the same mountain and sunshine logo as Big Fresh, as well as carrying Big Fresh as a brand on some fresh items.

However, the largest of the stores become Big Fresh. I don't know that they completed the conversions either before the takeover by Albertsons. I do know that the Albertsons conversions were relatively simple for many stores as they just changed the signs on the buildings.

Unfortunately, I haven't been to the Big Fresh stores since the conversion to Albertsons. I can't imagine Albertsons really knowing what to do with the food courts at Big Fresh as they really were different from any other stores in Montana.
bm10k
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Re: Buttrey Big Fresh

Post by bm10k »

Apparently Billings Had 3 Locations As Well

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases ... 14652.html
pseudo3d
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Re: Buttrey Big Fresh

Post by pseudo3d »

I suppose that Albertsons could've kept them initially, but probably not for the long run, as Albertsons c. 1999 was known for running similar stores with not much differentiation. Likely, the coffee bar transferred over to Starbucks with the rest of the food court area becoming part of the perishables departments (deli, bakery), not unlike what happened to the experimental food court at Jewel-Osco.
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